{"id":1073,"date":"2012-04-18T05:00:00","date_gmt":"2012-04-18T11:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/faithfuldemocrats\/2012\/04\/is-the-ryan-budget-a-catholic-budget\/"},"modified":"2012-08-20T20:04:19","modified_gmt":"2012-08-21T02:04:19","slug":"is-the-ryan-budget-a-catholic-budget","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/faithfuldemocrats\/2012\/04\/is-the-ryan-budget-a-catholic-budget\/","title":{"rendered":"Is the Ryan Budget a Catholic budget?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

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It is my sincere hope that the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) shows the same ferocity over the Ryan-Budget\u00a0proposal that they did over the contraceptive mandate.\u00a0\u00a0If we as a Church are to in one breath claim a need for religious liberty, our next breath should certainly be used to stand up for the religion we hope to be protecting.<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\t<\/span>Chairman of the House Budget\u00a0Committee, Paul Ryan, opens his \u201cPath to Prosperity\u201d budget\u00a0proposal with: \u201cThis budget, The Path to Prosperity, heeds America\u2019s political, economic, and moral imperatives by confronting the nation\u2019s most urgent \ufb01scal challenges.\u201d I wouldn\u2019t have been so confused with his plan if Paul Ryan, a Catholic, didn\u2019t play the morality card.<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\t<\/span>In a letter to Congress on the budget\u00a0in 2011 the USCCB reminded us of an important point, \u201cThe moral measure of this budget\u00a0debate is not which party wins or which powerful interests prevail, but rather how those who are jobless, hungry, homeless or poor are treated. Their voices are too often missing in these debates, but they have the most compelling moral claim on our consciences and our common resources.\u201d The Bishops are so right\u2014it\u2019s often easy to get caught up in partisan victories when we should instead be standing for the principals we hold.\u00a0<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\t<\/span>The Path to Prosperity shows a total disregard to the poor and marginalized. This budget\u00a0is the next step in the Republican plan to dismantle Medicare and Medicaid\u2014putting Medicaid into a block grant program and privatizing Medicare for those 55 and younger. As if dismantling our senior\u2019s healthcare plan wasn\u2019t enough, the budget\u00a0goes further by cutting the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program by 17% over the next decade. In total, according to the Center on Budget\u00a0and Policy Priorities, the Ryan Budget\u00a0gets 62 perfect of its proposed cuts from low-income programs including Medicaid, Pell grants, food stamps and job training.<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0This budget\u00a0isn\u2019t about Democrat or Republican, it is about what we as a society choose to use our resources on and how we choose to care for the least among us. Uncomfortable though it may make us, the budget\u00a0is inherently a moral document.<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0How can we believe the Republican Budget\u00a0Committee is heeding our moral imperatives when they go against precisely what we preach\u2014clothe the naked, feed the hungry, shelter the homeless?<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0As Catholics, we need to ensure that our society is ordered in a way to better serve the vulnerable. We either need to accept that the Ryan Budget\u2019s \u201csurvival of the fittest\u201d approach serves as our definition of morality, or we need to take legitimate political for those most in need of service. Now more than ever, our political action must be motivated by a simple reminder from Proverbs: \u201cHe who oppresses the poor shows contempt for their Maker, but whoever is kind to the needy honors God.\u201d<\/font><\/font><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It is my sincere hope that the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) shows the same ferocity over the Ryan-Budget\u00a0proposal that they did over the contraceptive mandate.\u00a0\u00a0If we as a Church are to in one breath claim a need for religious liberty, our next breath should certainly be used to stand up for the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1172,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1073","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-c17-featured-writers"],"yoast_head":"\nIs the Ryan Budget a Catholic budget?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"It is my sincere hope that the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) shows the same ferocity over the Ryan-Budget proposal that they\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, 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